Re-evaluating the `alternative' role of ethnic media in the US: the case of Chinese-language press and working-class women readers

Re-evaluating the `alternative' role of ethnic media in the US: the case of Chinese-language press and working-class women readers

作者
Yu Shi
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY AT HARRISBURG

資料來源
DOI: 10.1177/0163443709335219
Media Culture Society 2009 31: 597
摘要
With millions of immigrants still seeking a place in contemporary American
society, the foreign-language media that serve immigrants’ needs have significantly
increased their presence since the civil rights movements in the 1960s
and the relaxation of US immigration legislation in 1965. New American
Media (formerly New California Media), an association of over 700 ethnic
media organizations, reports (2005) that ethnic media now reach 51 million
adults, which is about a quarter of the entire US adult population; among the
51 million, 29 million prefer ethnic media to mainstream media.
In particular, this study focuses on the Chinese-language press that serves
about 1.3 million foreign-born Chinese in the US (US Bureau of Census,
2000) as well as some second- and third-generation Chinese Americans. The
Chinese-language press in the US traces its origin to two publications:
Golden Hill News started in San Francisco in 1854 and the Oriental in 1856
(Miller, 1987: 27–8). The press flourished after the turn of the 20th century
with publications often siding with different political parties in China. Yet it
was the independent newspapers such as the Chinese Times and the Chinese
Pacific Weekly that succeeded, due to their non-partisan perspectives and
focus on immigrant communities (Zhao, 2006). Recent official numbers are
scarce, but Ma reported in 1999 that there were already 40 Chinese-language
press titles in the US reaching about 1 million readers.